SOA First Lecture: New Education Policy Designed To Strengthen The Nation, Says Union Minister

Bhubaneswar: The proposed new education policy had been put through much scrutiny and was designed to strengthen academics so as to influence the world through India’s age-old value system, Union Human Resource Development Minister Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ said on Monday.

“The new policy has been subjected to intense consultation as it was put in the public domain for suggestions. In fact, it has been the biggest ever consultation taken up in the world,” Dr. Pokhriyal said while delivering the first lecture of the Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Lecture Series at the SOA Deemed to be University here.

The new policy, being taken up after a gap of over three decades, will be based on India’s ethics and value system and have the objective of strengthening the nation while making life meaningful, he said adding no other country shared the philosophy of India.

Dr. Pokhriyal, also a writer, poet and columnist, said India had over 1000 universities, 45,000 degree colleges, 16 lakh schools, over one crore teachers and 33 crore students which was more than the population of USA. “A lot hinges on our young generation,” he added.

Referring to the ‘Make in India’, ‘Digital India’, ‘Skill India’ and ‘Start-up India’ campaigns of the government, Dr. Pokhriyal said such endeavours would take the country to the top.

SOA Vice-Chancellor Prof. R.K.Chauhan welcomed the union minister and outlined the programme. Dr. Pokhriyal was felicitated on the occasion by SOA’s Founder President Prof. Manojranjan Nayak.

Praising Prof. Nayak for his vision to promote quality academics and research and his relentless effort to translate the same into reality, Dr. Pokhriyal expressed happiness that SOA was focusing on healthcare and agriculture. “Institutions like SOA have been strengthening the country,” he said.

‘Samayara Chitralipi’, a book comprising ten selected short stories of Dr. Pokhriyal, translated into Odia by Dr. Mahendra Prasad, Director of SOA, was also unveiled on the occasion.

Eminent literateurs Dr. Bibhuti Patnaik, Dr. Gourahari Das, Dr. Jatindra Kumar Nayak, Editor of Prameya, Mr. Gopalkrushna Mohapatra, and Consulting Editor of India Today, Mr. Ajit Kumar Jha were present.

Dr. Pokhriyal, who arrived at SOA in the morning, also visited the Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital and went round its departments of Burns, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Gastroenterology and Neurosciences. He also visited the newly-constructed SUM Ultimate Medicare, a new super-speciality hospital coming up here.

The union minister, who also inaugurated a students’ residential complex in SOA campus, interacted with with the Founder President, Deans, Directors and other officials of SOA where the Dean (Research and Development), Prof. Pradipta Kumar Nanda presented an overview on the rapidly expanding Deemed to be University and its future plans.